GeographyIn the NewsDaily Lessons

Lesson Plan

2-5 minutes each class period

continue 8-10 weeks

Written for Grade 9, can easily be adapted for any grade

Specific Topic: Five Themes of Geography. This lesson has two parts. Part One: Teacher Presentations. Part Two: Student Presentations. One presentation per consecutive class period for 8-10 weeks. Each presentation will begin with the introduction of a pre-selected current event news article that clearly falls under one or more of the five themes of geography in a real life situation. The class will attempt to identify which theme(s) and why.

Teacher Preparation:

Select 10 news stories that fall under one or more of the 5 themes of geography.
These are stories you will be presenting to your class during the opening two weeks of this activity. Use a mix of local, regional, and national newspapers. Try to pick news articles that fall under more than one theme. Bring the article with you to class.

Schedule of Student Presentations
Prepare a list of student names with the date they will be presenting their Geography in the News article to the class.

Student Assignment Instructions
Run copies of the student assignment instructions provided below. One copy per student. Make an overhead to use if you wish.

Student Assignment Instructions

Each student will select 1 Geography in the News article to present to the class.

The news article you select can be from any newspaper, but must be current within a week of your presentation date.

No duplications. If someone presents the story you were going to present, pick another one. The only exception would be if there is new information about the same story. For example - first a volcano was smoking. Several days later it erupted. The eruption would be new information.

You'll have 2-5 minutes to present.

Don't read the article, simply present an oral summary.

Tell the class what theme it fits. Lead a short discussion about the content. Ask the class if this news article fits any other theme.

Around day 7, present the student Assignment Instructions to your class after your daily "Geography in the News" presentation. Here are two example of articles that fall under more than one theme to use to explain quick "oral summary" that you might wish to use:
(a) A local paper in Washington State reported that there was a bumper crop of apples this year, and not enough people to pick the apples.
(b) After a twenty year sleep, once again Mt St Helen is wide awake, and is now an active volcano. Mt St Helen is spewing steam and rock and could erupt. People in the area have been evacuated.

Once you've gone over the instructions with your students, hand a written copy to each student, along with the schedule of presentations.

Have your students look for their own name. Say: Next to your name is a date. That is the date on which you will present your Geography in the News article to the class.

Tell your students that they are welcomed and encouraged to check their news article with you prior to presentation. Continue to present Geography in the News for the next couple of days to give your students time to prepare.

PART TWO: Student PresentationsNext Several Weeks. One student per class period.
Time frame: 2-5 minutes per class period.

Each student presents a quick summary of 1 news story to the class.

Student leads the quick discussion- talk about it a little.

Student asks the class which theme(s) today's story falls under and why.

Continue this daily activity daily until each student has presented an article to the class that shows Geography in the News. If your class has 30 students, that's 30 class periods. If needed, adjust the number of student presentations per class period based on the number of class periods you have.